How to turn a cattle station into a wildlife sanctuary

For dedicated twitchers, few dreams are more tantalising than the chance of spotting a Night Parrot in the wild. Believed extinct, with no confirmed sightings for 67 years, the elusive bird was miraculously photographed in western Queensland in 2013. 

Since then, the Night Parrot has achieved near cult-like status among birders. Yet even today, sightings are exceedingly rare; the ground-dwelling bird, which may number only 15 in Queensland, has only been spotted in just a handful of remote locations. 

Now, thanks to a $21 million donation to The Nature Conservancy, the Night Parrot's future – and that of countless other rare and significant plants and animals – looks brighter than ever. 

Donated anonymously, the funds were used by The Nature Conservancy to help the Queensland Government purchase Vergemont Station, a cattle property the size of Yosemite National Park. This has secured more than 300,000 hectares of prime habitat in Queensland’s Channel Country, creating a safe haven for wildlife, preserving vital water catchments and increasing the ecological connectivity of this globally significant landscape. 

For Dr James Fitzsimons, Senior Advisor with The Nature Conservancy and a keen birder, the project is especially exciting. “Vergemont Station is literally a couple of properties away from where the Night Parrot was rediscovered,” he says. “So the chances of finding it there are very high, which means we can learn much more about them.” 

The purchase isn’t just good news for birdwatchers, either. Containing an astonishing 34 different ecosystems, Vergemont is a veritable Noah’s Ark of biodiversity. “The area is home to other threatened species like the yellow-footed rock wallaby,” says James, and may serve as a refuge for the Opalton Grasswren. But what excites him most about the site is what we don’t know about it. “For a property of this size, the likelihood of finding new species is very high.”

Now poised to become a vital wildlife sanctuary, the former cattle station is a testament to the benefits of donating to conservation efforts. But the true impact of the purchase extends well beyond the station’s 300,000 hectares. Vergemont adjoins other existing and recently acquired reserves, creating a protected area corridor that conserves nearly 1.5 million hectares of the precious Channel Country bioregion. “It’s part of a much larger connected system, which was also attractive to the donor,” James says.

The acquisition is also a significant step towards Australia’s goal of protecting 30% of its lands and oceans by 2030, a global conservation initiative known as 30x30. 

“Vergemont is a prime example of how public and private partnerships can significantly shift the dial,” he says. “Purchasing important properties for conservation is one of a number of different protection strategies we know work. By pairing large donations with government purchasing power, we can achieve amazing conservation outcomes that neither could accomplish alone.”

Read the full Conservation Impact Report: January 2022-June 2024 here